Nasheed here,
I have thought about this issue deeply.
The way I see this saga play out, the more people over the next 12 months are going to turn on Pay wallah.
Pay is between a rock and a hard place. He is safe this year but is literally going to have to turn i around dramatically within the first 6 weeks of 2020 to stay on and keep the knifers and molesters away.
The thing is, it needs to be dramatic, minor improvement cant work. The fans expect alot of improvement and any minor success will be passed off as luck or just mediocre improvement.
I cant see that happening without a revolution in our roster. Our players are great support acts, but bar only a couple (Remis,Holland,Foran,Napa) none have marquee or star power.
We have players you'd love to have as your back up players but not in leadership positions. It wont fly, with HUGE improvement we probably cant fire above 9th place. And thats going to damage Pays reputation and turn off players.
So theres been a few names thrown up as possible replacements.
Most kennellers prefer Holbrook. Ex dog coach, killing the Super league, and most likely the next Trent Robinson or Michael Maguire. Might even bring along some premium english ass with him. Wow, sounds great right?
Not necessarily.
What people arent considering, is we have a terrible roster, so we cant get a coach that has a 70 percent winning record and expect the same results. Those coaches expect certain cattle already and a crap roster is sort of beneath them.
an analogy would be expecting the Aussie cricket coach to get into nuts and bolts of player technique. That guy will be blindsided as he isnt expecting to focus on that, rather higher level sophistication. He may get frustrated or feel misplaced in his soul.
We need a coach that is able to take mud and make a garden.
When you see it through that scope, the answer is beyond clear. Shane Flanagan.
It is a match made in heaven and although his name has been tossed around here and there between us like a ganga in a Bankstown back alley there hasn't been a strong push on the whole from what I've sensed.
But consider this,
When Shane took over the Sharks in 2010, the sharks had just come 15th in 2009. They would have been spooners if the Roosters season didnt self implode.
I remember alot of talk at the time about players not wanting to come to the sharks. They had no pull. A rabble on and off the field. No sponsor, this or that.
He then over the next couple of years made very astute recruitment choices (an instinct Des and Dean clearly lack regardless of your overall opinion of them) and this culminated to a grand final win in 2016, even with a drug thing in between, which mind you, despite Flanagan being the cause of their suspensions, they rallied around him and instead of him being flicked, he kept his job after being suspended for 1.5 seasons.
Where else do you see that nowadays? The players clearly loved him and were loyal to him. You have seen the sharks drop this year without him.
Before I leave his recruitment instincts completely out, remember, hes the smart guy that offloaded Lichaa to us, not A) bought him and B) re-signed him.
Yes Shane has a slight dodgy edge to him but to be honest, I dont think anyone as a fan cares that he checked his emails and made coaching suggestions. Yes a breach but to me thats just passion and him caring. Thats between him and the NRL elite, but this has presented us with a perfect opportunity to swoop.
He has done exactly what we require. He also lives local so I am sure he is more than happy to take the gig himself, over say, an opportunity in Newcastle or NZ. Yes I know he's technically banned, but lets be honest, in a year,with some water under the bridge, if we really want it to happen and lobby the right way it will.
PERFECT.
Please like this comment and discuss below. Nasheed.